UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Nittany Lion fencing schedule has been announced. The Nittany Lions, under the guidance of head coach Wes Glon, will compete in a full schedule of NCAA events as well as NAC competition and Olympic qualifiers. Penn State will host four events this season, culminating by being the host site for the 2018 NCAA Championships.

Penn State, a young team with only one senior in their lineup, looks to get its season started at home with the Nittany Lion Cup Open. This event is open to any fencers that are a member of the United States Fencing Association (USFA) and will take place Sep. 23-24 starting 10 a.m. each day.

The official schedule begins in earnest in October. The Nittany Lion season opens in full at the Temple Open on October 28-29. The next weekend, Penn State hosts the Garret Penn State Open on Nov. 4-5. NAC Junior/Cadet takes place on Nov. 11-13 in Kansas City.

December opens with the Nittany Lions heading to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Vassar for a series of duals against Princeton, Harvard, NYU, Sacred Heart, Penn, NJIT (on the men’s side) and Vassar. Qualifying Lions will take part in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Portland on Dec. 8-11.

NAC Division 1/Juniors will be in Virginia Beach, Va., on Jan. 5-8. The new year kicks off in force on Jan. 14 when Penn State hosts Penn, Temple’s women’s team, North Carolina, Columbia, Haverford, Duke and Yale starting at 8:30 a.m. The following week they are off to Queens, N.Y. for the third dual meet series of the season on Jan. 20 at 10 a.m. Columbia, Harvard, Notre Dame, Ohio State and St. John’s will be on the slate for that event.

February features two important dual meet dates as the Lions continue to prepare for the post-season. Duke will be the site of duals on Feb. 10-11 that feature Notre Dame, Air Force, North Carolina, Brandeis, Johns Hopkins’ men’s team, Temple’s women’s squad and Duke. Two weekends later, Temple’s women’s team hosts the Lions, St. John’s, Princeton, Penn, Brown and Stevens’ men’s squad. The Junior Olympics, which some of the younger fencers may qualify for, is directly between the final two dual meets for Penn State on Feb. 16 - 19.

“Our first goal is when creating our schedule is preparing ourselves to qualify the maximum number of individuals for the NCAA Championships,” said Glon. “If we achieve that goal, we give ourselves a shot to be in the top five as the host institution.”

The 2018 Mid-Atlantic/South Regionals take place at a site to be determined on March 10 and then Penn State hosts the 2018 NCAA Championships in the Multi-Sport Facility on Thursday through Sunday, March 22-25.

Fans can keep up with Penn State fencing at GoPSUsports.com. Follow the team on facebook at Penn State Fencing and on twitter @pennstateFEN.